5 Steps to Speak a New Language

(BQ) Tài liệu 5 Steps to Speak a New Language là Tài liệu bàn về phương pháp học ngoại ngữ với cách nhìn khá mới mẻ, hướng cho người đọc đến với phương pháp học hiệu quả được đúc rút ra từ kinh nghiệm thực tiễn của tác giả - một người Việt học tiếng Anh.
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5 Steps to Speak a New Language5 steps to speak a new language __________ (Hung Q. Pham)5 STEPS TO SPEAK A NEW LANGUAGECopyright © 2010 by Hung Quang PhamAll rights reserved. No part of this book may be reproduced ortransmitted in any form or by any means without writtenpermission from the author.Published in the United States by Cooper Cameron PublishingGroup, Oregon.ISBN 978-0-578-06697-4Printed in the United States of AmericaAugust 20102 DedicationTo Thu Nguyen, my wife and best friend. To my parents, they are my true heroes. 3 This page intentionally left blank4 ContentsChapter 1 Things You Should Know Before Starting 7Chapter 2 Pareto Principle and Core Vocabulary 16Chapter 3 Build a Natural Language Acquiring Mechanism 24Chapter 4 1st input – The Free Reading Technique 35Chapter 5 2nd Input – The Sound-Mapping Technique 56Chapter 6 Writing – a Great Tool 69Chapter 7 Develop Your Speaking Skills 76Chapter 8 Polish Your Pronunciation 94Chapter 9 Viewing grammar from another aspect 105Chapter 10 Other Techniques For You To Accelerate 108 5 This page intentionally left blank6 CHAPTER ONE Things you should know before starting “If you want to shine tomorrow, you need to sparkle today.” - HUNG Q. PHAMS peaking a new language is something a lot of people have always dreamed of. They want it for various reasons. For those who are living in my country Vietnam, being able tospeak English well could dramatically change their careerprospects. For kids born in the US but having parents whocannot speak English well, learning their mother tongue couldbring the family closer. Some people learn a new language fortheir beloved, like my friend, Brian, who has fallen in love with 7a Vietnamese girl. Well, I am not here to talk about why weneed to learn a new language, but how to do it. So why don’t wejust jump right into it?Every player has a warm-up session before entering a game. Weare going to do the same. In the next section, we are going totalk about some common myths about learning a new language.You will see that although learning a foreign language is not aneasy task, you absolutely can master it if you know how.The MythsI am not born to learn a foreign language.Most people believe that to learn a new language requires talentof some kind. What we have usually heard from our parents is:“My son has a great talent in foreign language” or the reverse“My son is no good in foreign languages”. I hope you are luckyenough to hear the first comment as it could give you hugeconfidence and boost your learning efforts. If you got the latterone, you might believe it and give up after your very firstattempt.A foreign language is also called a second language. Let me askyou a question: haven’t you been successful with your firstlanguage? And if you were able to learn the first one, why can’tyou learn a second one?When you first learned your mother language, you lacked manytools. At two or three years of age, you had no dictionary, noreading/writing skills, nor experience. Yet, you could master it.Now that you’ve got a lot of tools around to assist you, whycan’t you just repeat that success?The bottom line is that your belief matters.I am too old to learn a new language8This is one of the most common complaints I have beenhearing from my students and friends. Many people, includingscientists, believe that kids are better at learning a foreignlanguage than adults. They also believe adults cannot absorb anew language anymore.It is true that kids seem to adapt more quickly with a newlanguage environment. Many reports support that idea.However, you can also see that kids quickly get familiar with anew language but, after a short period of time, they tend to slowdown to a normal learning rate. I first learned French when Iwas only 11 years old and English when I was in my highschool. English had been one of my majors for many yearsafterward until I left university. It was still important when Istarted working. Several years after that, I still could not speakEnglish well. However, when I got older (of course, everyonegrows older than when he or she was in school), I achievedmuch more success in only a few months than what I’dachieved in all the years before that.Steve Kaufmann is an American linguist; he can speak ninelanguages (by now, he may have learned a few more). And hestarted learning his ninth ...